Nigerian military find arms in restive northern city

People gather at the site of a suicide attack in Kaduna, on April 26, 2012. Nigerian troops have recovered a cache of arms and explosives in a house near a military base in the restive northern city of Kaduna and arrested nine people, an army commander said Wednesday. - Copyright : AFP/File

KANO, Nigeria (AFP)

Nigerian troops have recovered a cache of arms and explosives in a house near a military base in the restive northern city of Kaduna and arrested nine people, an army commander said Wednesday.

“Nine people, including two men, two women and five children were arrested at the house which belongs to one Hussaini Dei-Dei, a politician based in Abuja”, Brigadier-General Tagbo Ude of the military base told AFP of Tuesday’s operation.

He said the recovered weapons included six Kalashnikovs, four pistols, one machine gun, 10 improvised explosive devices, 125 explosive detonators and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition as well as bomb-making components which were buried underground in the house.

Ude could not say if the weapons and the politician were linked to the Boko Haram Islamist group which has carried out scores of deadly attacks in the city, including a suicide attack at the military base in February last year.

“We are investigating and it is in the course of investigation that details will come out,” he said, adding that the house would be demolished.

Kaduna and its environs have been hit by numerous attacks blamed on Boko Haram in recent months, prompting frequent military crackdown on hideouts of the extremist group.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency in northern and central Nigeria is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

President Goodluck Jonathan will on Thursday visit Maiduguri and Damaturu — two cities in the country’s northeast regarded as hotbed of Boko Haram extremists, his first trip to the embattled region since taking office in 2010.